60 
popuLae sciefoe news. 
[April, 1891. 
ered every day in the practice and jirovings of 
eacli homeopathic physician. 
From theory to practice. It is, then, law, not 
luck, which has enabled the homeopaths to reach 
theii' very consistent result in the matter under 
consideration ; for, if the imperfected discovery of 
Koch he, indeed, a conspicuous and brilliant 
blossom of medical science, it is the startlinj; fact 
that this law of similars plucl<ed th llower long 
ago, and, aided by its accessory of safe dilution or 
attention, has made intelligent use of its discovei-y. 
To confine our attention to testimony bearing 
directly on the treatment of tuberculous disease. 
The proving of tuberculinum shows, as its primary 
effect, evidence of a deposit of tubercle at the base 
of the braili. Severe and unbearable headaches 
are a prominent symptom, with local congestion, 
delirium and insanity ; more remotely iind as later 
manifestations, cough, purulent sputa and diar- 
rhoea. The remedy tuberculinum has been, for 
years, helpfully given in meningitis, hereditary 
aud inveterate headaches, hectic fever, night 
sweats, cough, with tubei'culous expectoration 
and all early stages of phthisical disease. 
it would thus appear that in those first stages 
of consumption, which alone are claimed to be 
curable by the injection of Koch's Fluid, the 
homeopaths have made safe yet effective use of 
the same materia morbi as Koch's.* Instead of 
protection by boiling, cultivation, etc., a high 
attenuation has been found efficient. t This atten- 
uation, made chiefly b}' means of dilute alcohol, is 
claimed to accomplish something ))eyoud the mere 
subdivision of material. J'lie irritant particles are 
mechanically detached, while tlie curative principle 
is separated and developed. The degree of atten- 
uation used always ranged as high as a so-called 
thirtieth potency. After Darwin's statement of 
the minuteness of the spores of drosera capably of 
producing their characteristic action, the efficiency 
of a potency or attenuation does not to many 
persons seem improbable, and we will leave, for 
the present, the mathematics so frequently dis- 
cussed. 
It will readily be seen, however, that treatment 
by nosodes might soon degenerate into an en- 
thusiastic, thoughtless, and empirical use of 
these remedies, to the exclusion of others, if 
the inference were drawn tluit each microbic 
disease could be annihilated In- its own potenti/.ed 
product, and it has naturally been found impossible 
to remove, by the administration of its nosode 
alone, the whole ultinuite disturbance, in the form 
of secondary symptoms, sequences and diseases 
of distant parts of the bodj'. Indeed other i-eme- 
dies might, even from the beginning of treatment, 
be more serviceable than these. Thus, in faithful 
treatment, it is sought to accomplisli an end fai- 
more subtle than the mechanical removal of 
bacilli. Holding them to be merely parasites, 
among which may exist many forms not inimical 
to health but even fulfilling protective service in 
the body, the homeopath does not consider it 
essential that its bacillus be seen in the atom of 
diseased material which he prepares for medicinal 
use; the bacillus would almost necessarily be 
there, for each chaiacteristic parasite is the carrier 
of the disease in which it dwells, but it is the 
* See new Organon, .July, 1879, pp. 342, 439, 44i); Dr. Sw.an's 
Morbific Products, 1886; Burnett's New Cures, 1885 to 1890; 
J. A. iJiegler's Report; C. Hering's Guidinff Symptoms, \ol. 
X. (now in press). 
t Attenuations tlius far made by the Frencli experimenters 
have Ijeen unsatirtfactory, both on account of the uncertain 
stren({th of the dilutions and also by reason of changes of 
quality wrought by cultivation of the original material. 
The writer is aware of Koch's statement that the albu- 
minoid principle of parataloid is insoluble in alcohol; the 
simple dilution of the latter avoids this dlfliculty, chiefly by 
checking its coagulative effect. 
deadly materiaP in which the microbe-parasite 
feeds which alone is desired for proving, finally 
for prophylaxis and thei'apeutic use.f 
The object of the writer will have been fulfilled 
it he has succeeded in so ijresenting to laymen the 
anmuis of the homeopathic school, that its warning 
and moderate promise regarding Koch's micro- 
biology may be of service in the homes of the 
people. As in politics, so in medicine, a change 
of base is treason, and the teaching of homeopathy 
cannot therefore hope to be acceptable to the older 
school. "It is said that in the Chinese Empire, a 
burden was formerly carried suspended from a 
stick by two or more men, until a certain indi- 
vidual discovered that one man could carry two 
baskets suspended from either end of one stick 
with comparative ease. He was instantl}' beheaded, 
not being of the caste of inventors, yet his inven- 
tion is now adopted Ijy the less conservative in 
China." 
The ancient school attacks the new, having 
known but little of its large work, but the time 
has gone by for dismissing without a hearing such 
claims as led Wilson, the anatomist, to employ 
homeopathy for himself, aud Sir Sidney Ringer to 
incorporate, verbatim, large sections of its materia 
medica in his authoritative work. These are the 
stars in the firmament of homeopathy, men of 
att'airs, of business, scholars, warriors, poets, 
statesmen whose practical wisdom has moulded 
the destinies of the world : Sir William Hamilton, 
.\rchbishop Whateley, Carl Wilhelm Siemans, 
Lord Lyndhurst, Augustus de Morgan, Lord 
Lytton, Charles Reade, Wendell Phillips, Theo- 
doi-e Parker, Helen Jackson, Miss Phelps, Balzac, 
Gambetta, D'Israeli, Bismarck. Instead of such 
awkward use of its weapons that the force power- 
ful enough to combat the disease must destroy 
also the invalid, homeopatliy, die milde Macht, has 
quietly employed its methods, "strong enough,'" 
as Wendell Phillips once remarked to the writer, 
"to wait until its accumulating facts would speak 
for themselves." 
*The bacillus not only maintains Its own parasitic life in 
the body, but appears itself to manufacture, or subverts the 
nutrient function to produce various toxic substances 
wliich are poisonous, though separated from the bacillus. 
See Popular Science News, March, 1891, p. 45, quoted 
from Edinburgh Medical Journal. 
t See Swan's Nosodes; Burnett's New Cures. 
[Original in Popblak SCIENCE News.] 
CARE OF THE EYES OF NEW-BORN 
INFANTS. 
BV J. HOBAUT EGBERT, A. M., M. D., PH. D. 
In the process of parturition, the eyes of the 
child are in danger from two sources, to wit : in- 
oculation by accompanying discharges, — whether 
specific or non-specific, — and from mechanical in- 
jury at the hands of the attendants. Of the latter 
danger little need be said, as the preventive meas- 
ures are at once obvious, and the subsequent treat- 
ment dependent upon the nature of the injury and 
the eft'ects produced by it. These injuries are 
rare, but have occurred from time to time in the 
practice of some of the ablest men in the profes- 
sion. The danger from inoculation is very great, 
and the danger thus incurred is always serious, 
and sometimes the greatest to which the liuman 
eye is ever exposed. 
The chief and most important cause of infantile 
conjunctivitis is this exposure. during parturition, 
although direct communication by the hands of 
attendants, and indirect by atmospheric dissemi- 
nation of disease-germs, are causes not to be over- 
looked ; while bad atmospheric surroundings, ex- 
posure to too intense ligiit, cold air, smoke, dust, 
irritating gases, and to irritating soap in the first 
ablutions, are less active and less dangerous fac- 
tors of causation. 
The conjunctivitis of new-born children may be 
divided into two classes, viz. : the specific and the 
non-specific varieties. The mild or non-specific 
variety is usually a simple catarrh, but is apt to 
prove very obstinate, since the eyes of an infant 
are difficult to cleanse, and their recuperative 
power is limited. In these cases there is, as a 
rule, not much disehiu'ge, nor marked swelling olj 
the lids, and the conjunctiva of the eye-ball is nol(^ 
much implicated. The eyelids have a tendency to 
stick together, and there is more or less of a- 
sticky, j'ellowish discharge, which is apt to co 
lect at the margin of the lids. There is very \\ttl4 
danger to the corhea, — hence, to the sight, — and^ 
the discharge yields quite readily to the proper : 
remedies, to be considered later on. The severer 
(specific or purulent) form is a true blenorrhoea, 
aud is the result of a direct infection. It is due to 
a specific germ — a micrococcus — which is found in 
the secretions, and either gets into the eye of the 
child during birth, or is carried to the eyes after 
birth by means of sponges or towels that have 
been contaminated by the secretions containing 
the infectious germs, or from an eye already af- 
fected with purulent ophthalmia. 
As a rule, the disease manifests itself in from 
one to three days after birth, the third day after 
birth being almost invariably given as the date 
when the discharge is first noticed. But the dis- 
charge may not begin so early, and the eyes 
should be carefully and frequently examined dur- 
ing the first ten days of the infant's life. Unless 
the disease results from subsequent direct inocu- 
lation, it is safe to assume that the later its ap- 
pearance the milder will be its course, and the less 
purulent and the more simply catarrhal its nature. 
In the course of its manifestation, itching and 
slight redness of the conjunctiva soon pass on to 
intense congestion, with oedema of the subcon- 
junctival areolar tissue, tense inflammatory swell- 
ing of the lids, great pain, and discharge. The 
discharge is at first serous, but soon becomes 
more profuse and uniformly creamy and yellow, 
or even slightly greenish. Generally one eye is 
first affected, and in a few days the other also. If 
neglected, as this disease but too often is, or 
treated with some such useless application as a 
little mother's milk, the lids swell externally and 
assume a dark red color, the conjunctival inflam- 
mation rapidly increases, and the purulent dis- 
charge becomes very copious. The infant keeps 
the ej-es shut. The eyes may continue in this 
state for a number of days without any serious 
injury to the transparent parts, and in a certain 
proportion of these cases no corneal damage oc- 
curs; but the risk is great, for not infrequently 
the cornea becomes dull and hazy, and partially 
infiltrated with pus in a very few days. As this 
infiltration extends, the texture of the cornea is 
thereby speedily destroyed and gives way by 
ulceration, which in not a few cases leads to per- 
foration. With a small perforating ulcer the iris 
alone may prolapse, but when a considerable por- 
tion of the cornea has been destroyed, the iris is 
exposed, the lens comes away, the humors pro- 
trude through the pupil, and the sight is totally 
destroyed. In the words of another, it is indeed 
"mel.'uicholy to reflect on the frequency of de- 
stroyed vision from this disease, especially as the 
complaint is, in general, completely within con- 
trol, if taken in time and properly treated." At- 
tendants are not alanned sufficiently early, and 
even medical practitioners are sometimes betrayed 
into the false supposition that there is notliiug 
dangerous in the complaint, till the corneae burst, 
